JERUSALEM: PART I

A bumper first crop of Jerusalem artichokes had me toying with various ways of cooking these delicious tubers. In addition to the quintessential side serving of roast veg there was creamed Jerusalem artichoke soup topped with a beautiful chestnut and parsley pesto, and the strange-but-true Jerusalem artichoke cake from Mark Diacono's 'Year at Otter Farm', which made for a surprisingly tasty variation on your more traditional, carrot-based serving.

Cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup with chestnut & parsley pesto

Jerusalem artichoke cake

JERUSALEM: PART II

This beautiful bounty also led splendidly into my first of the month's book selection: Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi. The aforementioned j-chokes were roasted with chicken and lemon, there was some comforting lamb- and pine nut-stuffed aubergine, and the quick lemon pickle that went with his fish & caper kebabs with smoked aubergine was as bold, punchy and delicious as you'd expect.

Roasted chicken with Jerusalem artichoke and lemon

Stuffed aubergine with lamb and pine nuts

Fish & caper kebabs with burnt aubergine and lemon pickle

A CHANGE OF APETITE

I've been a latecomer to the delights offered by Diana Henry, but with a couple of her tomes now happily ensconced on the shelves it was time to start giving them a serious look. A gorgeous Cypriot pomegranate gifted to me by one of the neighbours gave a sweet, sour kick to her bejewelled roast pumpkin with labneh and walnut gremolata, her soba noodles with broccoli, chilli and fried egg made for a nice light and refreshing lunch, and the kale, salmon and barley soup with buttermilk was also a bit of a revelation.

Roast pumpkin with labneh, walnut gremolata and pomegranate

Soba noodles with broccoli, chilli and fried egg

Kale, salmon and barley soup with buttermilk

#IGBREADCLUB

A double challenge for this month's #IGbreadclub, as I not only made my first attempt at homemade baguettes, but tried out a different technique with Hamelman's un-kneaded, six-fold French bread. Plenty of work still to do on scoring, but they ended up looking alright and the flavour was quite nice for a commercially-yeasted bread.